Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 42

2D FT. LAITDEKDALE NEWS. Friday, May 10, 1963 GOP Leaders See 64 Victory WASHINGTON, The Re Plantation publican congressional leadership ett M. Dirksen, the Senate GOP leader, "would be specula, tive," especially since Rockefeller not an announced candi date. Anyhow, he added: "That's an intensely personal matter on which I have no com said today that "public disillusionment" with President Kennedy has set in and that the GOP will capture the presidency and control of the House in 1964.

The spokesmen at a news conference shied away from any interpretation of the effect New A I A Village Flayer ment." Rep. Robert Wilson, York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's divorce and remarriage may have chairman of the GOP congressional campaign committee, also de clined comment. He said the con on his chances for the presidential nomination. vention is far away and the presi Pro Any comment, said Sen.

Ever dential field "is wide open." gress CONGRATULATIONS I VIAH Is-i (Editor's Note: This is the first of a two part history of Plantation appearing in this special section. The second part is on Page 8.) often sleeping under the trees when the herd had wandered too far from their bunk house. $25 AN ACRE About 1939, Daniel says his father "received an offer for his land from Fred Peters, a multimillionaire with interests in shoe manufacturing, cattle, and On 10 Years of Progress SUNRISE GOLF VILLAGE ENTRANCE TO PLANTATION HOMES, INC. ill-fated development hit by hurricanes, floods man's arm and tomatoes as big as the human head. In 1911, Richard J.

Bowles held his famous land lottery with chances selling for $240 a piece. Purchasers were entitled to a lot in Progresso, which is now Wilton Manors, and farm land ranging from five acres to an entire section of land. The idea stemmed from the theory people could live in the city but still remain farmers. Eventually, the grandiose plan failed. The drainage of the farm lands proved abortive, and most of the land reverted to the state for taxes.

It was in this early period that some people believe the name "Plantation" evolved. It is rumored that the city folk who owned farms out west referred to their properties as "plantations." Later in the twenties the name was incorporated into the nomenclature of the Old Plantation Drainage District. Daniel claims his father sold his property for $25 an acre because he thought the price was more than the land was worth at the time. Later, Peters acquired some 4,000 acres from Hawkins. On Dec.

3, 1942, Peters began moving his cattle into Plantation under the supervision of Leslie E. Bitting, who now lives at 56 Acre Dr. Bitting's father, Ben Bitting, was also employed by Peters on farms in south Dade County. When the son arrived, Plantation was nothing more than a vast sea of sawgrass and pal-mettoes. For eight months Bitting lived alone in a log cabin where the turnpike now sits.

Jr iLJ ffiv PLANTATION Despite the building boom, the shopping centers and all the other trappings that go with a flourishing community, the small town flavor of Plantation remains. In the beginning, the lots were an acre, the spirit was pioneering and the people were friendly. With progress, homesites shrank somewhat But the rural atmosphere of old lingers on. There is a definite rapport between Plantation of the past and Plantation today. The personality of this city is rooted in its history.

Its character is molded by the pioneers who turned swampland into cattle pastures and pastures into subdivisions. It all began at the turn of the century, when the word spread across the nation that the Everglades was to be (drained and thousands of acres of fertile muck land brought under the plow. Among the first to attempt fa till the swampland was the Florida Fruit Land which held title to vast acreage including what is now Plantation. LAND LOTTERY Within a few years the fertility of the Glades generated fantastic stories of sweet potatoes growing as long as a Meanwhile, two local farmers began to buy up the acreage that had reverted to the state for taxes. O.

Daniel eventually acquired about 6,000 acres and Dewey Hawkins about 4,000 acres. Both men are deceased. D. R. Daniel, son of the early pioneer, says his father turned his property into grazing land.

The cow pens were then located on the site of the Sunshine Stale Parkway. Daniel says he and other cow-pokes rode herd on the cattle, Then in the summer of 1943 Bitting and his father began a program of improving the pastures. Along with the agricultural improvement program came the drainage of the' area. In 1947 the Old Plantation Water Control District was chartered by the state. John Brendla, a civil engineer, now deceased, took charge of the drainage.

Canals were (Continued on Page 4) On Drovcrd Boulevard 'Otb BIHf HBflV KffiW Cake and Orange Juice for ALL Dedication and Opening of New Community Center at 1 1 :00 A.M.! STARTS SATURDAY, MAY 11th. 9:30 A. 1 TT'' w' 1 1 i. z. a- 3 4fc I FAMILY STYLE SIBBS daqge SATURDAY NIGHT EAST ACRE DRIVE and BROWARD BOULEVARD "Come one GREATER PLANTATION MERCHANTS will offer special gifts and special prizes all week.

Open House and refreshments by merchants. come all Join the toeeh. BROWARD BOULEVARD (LOOKING WEST) East Acre Drive in spring of 194S of Fun!" a decade of growth and development TENFOLD OEASOIl FOR CELEBRATION PLA3TAIM r. 1953 Jo 1963 C03GRATULATI03S rowar with perticuletr pride and a strong SENSE OF PARTICIPATION in the forward pace of this community the Fidelity National Bank, the only bank in Plantation commends the spirit that has prevailed for the past ten years. County's MOST SPECTACULAR HOUR-LONG It's been our privilege to serve as a member of the "neighborhood." In our special capacity, it's been our privilege, also, to meet and know the people of Plantation individually, not only as a City.

rnfFZTn)F7(? Teh KJ LA To all our continuing wish for a bright future and our renewed promise of continued dependable service in every banking capacity. ijiimiuiiH'tv, mm AT PLANTATION FIELD N.W. 70th AVE. 0:30 P.M. MAY 17th Sponsored by the Merchants and Businesses of the GREATER PLANTATION AREA ivho SET THE PjLCE for Central Broivard County Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, 3800 W.

BROWARD BLVD. ij An Affiliate of First National Bank in Ft. Lauderdala.